This is a graphic and thought-provoking story about what happens when parents with radical views isolate their children from mainstream society until adulthood. However, it does give hope that children raised in racist and science denying family compounds can find enlightenment if they can clear a path to a college education. I was totally wrapped up in this memoir from beginning to end and even missed a couple of mealtimes, and some sleep, because I couldn't stop reading. I recommend this book to everyone, and am grateful to the author for sharing her personal story.

The Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls) meets Leaving the Saints (Martha Beck).
Beautifully written yet gritty memoir of Westover's off-the-grid family and her desire for an alternate life.

Podcast review at https://anchor.fm/kidelo/episodes/Educated-by-Tara-Westover-e13drk

This memoir about growing up in a radical family of religious fundamentalists on a remote Idaho mountain is stunning. A father who runs a scrapyard, an herbalist midwife mother and 7 children birthed at home are living completely off the grid.

Tara did not see the inside of a classroom before the age of 17 because her paranoid parents did not believe in public education. They believed schooling was a plot by government to brainwash. This survivalist family spent entire summers canning food and preparing in other ways for Armageddon.

Despite the abusive world she grew up in, Tara ultimately rebels, going away to college and achieves a Phd from Harvard. Her world opens up beyond her family’s distorted reality; She is an inspiration.

There was so much Tara shared that hurt my heart. I cannot comprehend growing up in this kind of dysfunctional atmosphere. What a brave soul for sharing such intimate details of her family life. I devoured this book and can’t recommend enough!

When I picked up Educated by Tara Westover I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. The premise was intriguing; a girl who had never been formally educated eventually earning her PhD from Cambridge University. Wow! I was expecting Tara's story to be one of inspiration but after devouring the book in less than two days I realized the road to her doctorate was paved with pain and abuse, and all at the hands of her family.

Growing up, Tara was always told she was special but she didn't feel special. She always knew that her family was different, but it wasn't until she made the bold move to pursue a college education at the age of seventeen, without any prior formal education, that she realized just how different, and dysfunctional, her family really was.

Tara's dad is a Mormon preacher, with bipolar tendencies, is highly paranoid of the government and owns a junkyard. Her mother follows everything her father says, and is a midwife and herbalist. They are a survivalist family that lives on an Idaho mountain, incredibly isolated, with no socialization except for a few family members. They did not believe in modern healthcare so there were no immunizations and they used homeopathy to deal with symptoms of very serious injuries and illnesses that should've been dealt with in a hospital. They were all born at home and Tara didn't technically "exist" until she was nine years old when she received a Delayed Certificate of Birth. Her mother didn't even remember her actual date of birth, so the date of birth on her birth certificate is an educated guess.

Their Mormon faith was supposedly the most important aspect in the family but the more you read about Tara's journey the more you get the feeling that their "faith" is used as a manipulative tool and that the "truth" they lived by did not come from the Bible, but from Tara's dad, who would lecture incessantly on certain subjects. I do not know much about the Mormon religion but I cannot see any faith being ok with what was allowed in this family: the manipulation, the lies, the abuse. Tara's mom actually witnessed Tara being physically abused at the hands of her older brother Shawn, but tried to rationalize it instead of helping her daughter. The abuse from her brother never happened in front of their father and when Tara came to her dad and accused Shawn of this abuse her father wanted actual "proof" of what she was accusing him of. Her parents eventually turned the tables and actually convinced Tara that she herself was insane, saying that her memories were false, and she began to doubt everything that she thought was real in her life, which led to a mental breakdown, and eventual estrangement from half of her family.

Educated was incredibly hard for me to read and yet at the same time I couldn't put it down. To read of the physical abuse that she endured at the hands of her brother, and the psychological abuse from her parents and siblings made me sick to my stomach, and brought back memories from my own abuse. I felt angry that Tara had to go through what she went through, but I am so glad that she fought for herself and her education, and got herself out of a horrible situation. Her memoir gives hope to those who feel like they are in hopeless situations and proves that you can overcome any obstacle, no matter how big.

Though tough to read, I do believe that everyone should read Educated. It is hands down one of the most powerful and well-written memoirs I've ever read.

This is a very special book. Tara Westover has a captivating writing style that pulls you in and keeps you as she journeys through the events of her life that have impacted her to this day. It is heartbreaking and beautiful and resilient like herself. A must read.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2258753583?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

Educated is worth all the hype it's received and more. I've never read a book like it. Tara Westover's ability to allow the reader into such an unfamiliar world is unparalleled, and I was rooting for her from the very beginning. That she can be so articulate, so fluent with her storytelling at the same time as coming to terms with such trauma is testament to her strength as a woman and her natural ability as a writer. I commend her for turning her life into one she owns and one anybody would be proud to lead, after such a shaky start. I don't normally enjoy memoirs per se but this transcends others in the genre and I will read it again on holiday later this year. Didn't want it to end but I'm so glad Tara has the ending (or new begninng) that you'd want for her.

{My Thoughts}
Educated is the perfect example of truth being stranged than fiction. Had this been a novel, I think I’d have found many parts unbelievable, but knowing that Educated was the truth of Tara Westover’s life made it fascinating, horrifying, and hopeful. Together with several brothers and a sister, Westover was born into a Mormon family in rural Idaho. Her family was different than the others in her church. Yes, they attended church services and believed in its teachings, but her survivalist father added his own doctrines to their lives. He believed that schools would only corrupt his children, so Tara, as one of the younger kids, never attended school. He was rabid in his disdain for modern medicine and even in the worst of circumstances refused to consent to medical interventions. With her father’s encouragement, Tara’s mother became a mid-wife and local healer. The family stockpiled food, weapons and other supplies in preparation for the world’s end.

Tara’s father ruled with an iron fist. His beliefs were the only ones permitted. He hated anything touched by government or regulations: insurance, seat-belts, vaccines, schools, hospitals, even well known parts of history such as the Holocaust and the Civil Rights movement. Everyone in his family had a choice, they could leave or they could fall in line. Living such an isolated life, the children, including Tara tended to submit to their father’s way of life. It wasn’t a happy life, but Tara loved her parents and the mountain where she lived. She grew up working alongside her mother preserving food and making tinctures from plants and herbs. When she became a little older, Tara was conscribed to work alongside her brothers in the harsh world of her father’s junkyard. Despite the hardships, Tara manged to carve a little life for herself in a local theater group. Though it was definitely out of character for her father, he loved watching her sing and perform.

As Tara grew older, one of her brothers became physically and mentally abusive. In the close quarters in which they lived, it’s hard to believe her parents were unaware, but help was never forthcoming. Tara’s despair turned inward and her life reached a very low point.

“I began to reason with myself, to doubt whether I had spoken clearly: what had I whispered and what had I screamed? I decided that if I had asked differently, been more calm, he would have stopped. I write this until I believe it, which doesn’t take long because I want to believe it. It’s comforting to think the defect is mine, because it means it is under my power.”

Another brother left the mountain and went to college. With his encouragement, Tara began working through math curriculums, studying English and science, and eventually took the ACT, managing to get accepted to BYU at 17. It might seem like this was the break Tara needed, and in many ways it was, but family ties are strong. So ingrained was the idea that government is bad that for a long time, Tara could not bring herself to apply for a grant. Many times she nearly quit and often returned to her home, but with each class she took and person she met, Tara learned more about other ways to live a life. She began to see her parents in a different light. The accomplishment of achieving an education from BYU, Harvard, and Cambridge was striking in itself, but more so in the clarity it brought Tara about her family. The more she learned the more the Tara saw her family in light of the famous Cervantes quote:

“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies?”

I thoroughly enjoyed Educated. Some parts were very difficult to read and others frustrating, but I always wanted to know how Tara would survive her family. Grade: B+

Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.

4 frightening sad stars

The human spirit is oftentimes resilient and given the life that Tara Westover lived as a child and teenager, she had to be just that. How she survived the horrible psychological abuse she was give by her religious fanatic parents and the physical and emotional abuse thrown onto her by her brother, Shawn, is surely a testament to her nightmare of a childhood.

In this family, many of them seemed to be walking examples of mental illness. Unfortunately, according, to the tenets of their Mormonism and the parents belief that there were conspiracies galore with intent to kill people, they did not go to doctors or schools, and only practiced, courtesy of the mom, holistic medicine. Both parents were psychologically ill, the father with bi polar/schizophrenia, and the mother with dependency personality issues believing everything the father and son did to be the will of god. The son Shawn was a bully, enjoying the physical torturing of his siblings while also seeming to be involved in the killing of animals. He was in all intents and purposes a sociopath with tenancies towards being a psychopath. Even now, he is married and the father of two. Who knows what abuse his family is suffering?

However, with no help from anyone or any outside agency, Tara and two other of her siblings were able to escape the abuse but probably never the trauma of what they experienced. Tara went onto to become quite accomplished, gaining admittance to prestigious schools of higher learning, even though never having attended any lower schools before. The children who escaped the mountain area in which they lived, seem to have moved forward in life recognizing what the world really is and how to succeed in it. Tara was cut off from the remaining family and accused of being the devil. Seeing her parents or other family members was not ever to be. One can only hope that this continues for Tara never to return home or to that abusive environment where unfortunately some of her nieces and nephews are being raised today.

What truly surprised me was that not one single person stepped forward to plead for these children, not a grandparent, an aunt, uncle, churchgoer, friend, neighbor etc. They all seemed to think that the rules of living in the Westover household were normal. The parents to this day, now quite wealthy due to the holistic medicine and essential oil business set up by the mother, think Tara made everything up. She and her other two brothers know the truth. After finishing this book, I had to wonder if Tara and her brothers who escaped would ever really escape the years of abuse they suffered.

Thank you to Tara Westover, the publisher, and NetGalley for making this book available to me.

Tara Westover’s memoir, Educated, is not only the story of her own, astonishing academic education and achievement, it’s an education for the reader in how the tentacles of fundamentalist religious practice ensnare and brainwash their members, willing and not so willing.

In the prologue to this magnificent book, Ms. Westover says, “This is not a book about Mormonism.” As I read her story of growing up in a fundamentalist, fringe element, Mormon household, where formal education, the “Government,” and Western medicine were not only disdained but preached against vehemently, I puzzled over this comment, until I realized that she means that her story, while occurring in a Mormon household and community, could have happened in any strongly suspicious and outlier religious community.

The Westover parents did not send their children to school. They lived under the radar of all government entities and when asked, said that they homeschooled their children. While technically accurate, because Ms. Westover and her siblings definitely received an education, that education was not what one typically considers a normal education. More like indoctrination into bizarre Bible interpretation, working in their father’s scrap yard, assisting their mother with midwifery, and ultimately in her very successful homeopathy business.

This story is a very difficult read at times, because the stark reality of Ms. Westover’s childhood, her own quest for education, and the literal tyranny of her father (who, by any consensual reality definition, was deranged) and one of her brothers, who almost killed her more than once, is so horrific and beyond the realms of human experience, certainly my human experience, that it can be difficult to keep reading. Nonetheless, the book is a masterpiece; one of the most unusual memoirs I’ve ever read, as well as one of the most interesting. I truly felt the nature of her family and life, and was captivated and on her side as she eventually escaped her little world and discovered the world of higher education. She is to be commended for her writing skill, courage, and honesty in writing and sharing her story with the world. I recommend this book highly.

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

It's difficult to read this book and not compare it to The Glass Castle since both Westover and Walls experienced similarly difficult upbringings under an unstable, charismatic father. While it is incredible how Westover triumphed against all odds to earn her PhD later in life, her writing lacks polish and often does an inadequate job of putting the reader within her frame of mind. I had particular problems with the depiction of her abusive, violent brother Shawn; I failed to understand why Westover kept returning home after each incident with him when her parents continually took his side and why she did frustratingly little in the way of taking action against him to assure that he did not hurt anyone else. I did gain a whole new level of appreciation for organized education and bits of common knowledge that are all too easily taken for granted.

5 brilliant stars to Educated! 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

I grew up in a home of readers with a teacher mom and a dad who questioned my effort when I made an A-minus on my report card. When I began reading Educated, I was floored that Tara and her siblings were not in school, and they were not homeschooled either. How could this happen in modern times with compulsory schooling put in place long ago?

Tara made it clear from the start that her family’s Mormon faith did not cause her father’s substantial paranoia; however, he used his faith to feed it. This family not only did not have insurance, they did not believe in accessing traditional medical care. Horrific accidents and illnesses abounded due to the father’s and one sibling’s risk-taking, and no one went to the doctor.

While the family was clearly having difficulty grappling with many things, I was struck by the love and devotion between them, even with the strained family dynamics. It was both fascinating and heartbreaking to watch those dynamics shift even more as Tara’s aspirations developed and were achieved.

Strength. Grit. Perseverance. Tara’s tenacity resulted in her leaving the farm at Buck’s Peak and enrolling in college, after never attending a day of school. Her words were upfront, bold, but never complaining or looking for pity.

Overall, I found Educated to be one of the most engaging, powerful, and inspiring memoirs I have read.

Thank you to Tara Westover, Random House, and Netgalley for this reading experience I will treasure. Educated is now available!

Wow, I loved this book! It's searing and beautifully written, and so important at this time in our culture.

Congratulations to Tara Westover for publication of her stunning memoir, Educated.

One of the great things about reading is that it provides the ability to vicariously experience a slice of life one might never actually experience … a geographic location, a period in history, a different class or racial experience. Obviously a window into a different life from ours broadens our knowledge of the world we live in but just as importantly it adds to our ability to empathize with people different from us. Nowhere is this aspect of reading more evident than in memoir. “Educated” provides such a window into the world of a fundamentalist Mormon family living in the stark mountains of Idaho. But it is so much more than that.

This is an unforgettable memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school by her fundamentalist Mormon family, in particular her rigid survivalist father, leaves her family at age 17 to attend Brigham Young University without ever having attended school, and ultimately goes on to attend Harvard and earn a PhD from Cambridge University.

Westover’s story is equal parts inspirational and heartbreaking. I couldn’t put it down … perhaps the best book I’ve read thus far in 2018. So much to admire about Westover … her determination to live a different life, to question her family’s firm beliefs and her ability to eloquently tell her story!

I normally jump into writing a review as soon as I am done with a book. Before starting this one however, I had to pause and get my steady breathing back and not hear the my heart beating and the noise actually pumping in my ears. It may sound dramatic but I have spent the better half of the day reading this book, ( I jumped at that chance because Goodreads listed it in the releases for today and I thought there couldn't be a better day to read this, and I had an ARC thanks to NetGalley with me) and was very invested in Tara Westover's life.

This is a true story of the author's life and for the millionth time I realize how grateful I should be for having a safe and happy childhood. She looks back on her upbringing in a family with very few ties to the outside world and reality is blurred around the edges and rationality is not taken for granted. We can see her piece her life together with her journal entries and her memories and other's corroboration. Human tenacity and the fight some people might have to go through to use their abilities is highlighted through multiple instances. The author's family have an ingrained lack of trust with the government and anything associated to it.As the youngest of the children, she has a better view of all the changes that their family faces and the precedents that are available to her. She joins formal education directly in college and goes on from there. The human element is the most crucial aspect of it all,the warring of the minds and the emotional quality and quantity available to them.Her entire family who are extremely religious,each have a different reaction to Tara's choices in life.  It was a very powerful read and I am not sure I am strong enough to read it again, but I would recommend it to others.

This is a fascinating memoir of a woman who was raised by a survivalist family in the mountains of Idaho. The father is bipolar, the mother submissive, and siblings ranging from abusive to supportive. Isolated from "the real world," not allowed to go to school, with only a Delayed Birth Certificate noting an uncertain birthdate, she struggles with who she is, what her loyalties are, what is love, what are her family obligations, how to deal with being manipulated, and more. Ultimately, she escapes to university for her education, not just a school-book education, but also a life-affirming one. Once started, I was captivated and finished it in one day.

Random House and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Educated. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Tara Westover was born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, not even known to authorities because her parents did not register her birth. Schooled in the way of survival, Tara did not step foot into a classroom before the age of 17. The youngest of seven children, Tara had plenty of family around, including her grandparents on both sides. Her father's notions were varied and sometimes destructive, especially when it came to the world outside of their mountain. Distrust of the government and the world in general was mostly the way with her father, giving Tara a view of life that was just a sliver of the real world. Put into dangerous situations on almost a daily basis, Tara possessed a mental toughness that allowed her to survive. Although most of her family failed to protect her, Tara was able to thrive and achieve in ways in which most can only dream possible.

Educated is the story of survival; of being tested in ways that no one should ever be; of being pushed to the brink and thriving despite it all. This is not a book that a reader can say that they enjoyed. It is a memoir that readers can absorb, can be stunned by, and can be shocked by the realization that life can be worse than you could ever imagine. Author Doctor Tara Westover has bared her soul in this memoir and I am in awe of her ability to persevere despite very difficult circumstances.

All readers will benefit from Educated, but those who have doubts as to their own abilities need to read this novel to realize that the power of the mind and the spirit can overcome any obstacle. I highly recommend Educated and I wish the very best to the author, Doctor Tara Westover.

Tara Westover was born on an isolated mountain in Idaho to a bipolar survivalist father and a submissive, complicit mother. She has no birth certificate, in fact her parents even forget her age! The family does not believe in conventional medicine or healthcare. They do not go to doctors or dentists, even when gravely ill. Though she craves an education, she is not allowed to go to school. Her parents do not homeschool the family, either. The children are expected to help out with the family junkyard business.

The abuse, domination, and neglect that she experiences are heartbreaking. Somehow, Tara (and two of her brothers), are able to escape for snippets of time and teach themselves everything from reading to trigonometry. Tara earns a high score on the ACT along with her father's wrath and disapproval. The book follows along as Tara pursues her education and challenges the beliefs and values that her family holds.

There were parts that were extremely tragic and difficult to read, but being witness to the author's understanding and growth is ultimately hopeful. I was amazed and humbled by the book. I most highly recommend it.

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley on exchange for my honest review.

“… we had been sculpted by a tradition given to us by others, a tradition of which we were either willfully or accidentally ignorant.”

One of the most engrossing books I’ve ever read, “Educated” is the memoir of a woman raised in the mountains of Idaho with her siblings as a survivalist family. Her parents, deeply fundamentalist, don’t believe in doctors or modern medicine, outside schooling, or anything hinting at government intervention or control. They stockpile weapons and food for the time they may be forced to defend their way of life.

“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies” - (Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra)

Never even having a birth certificate until she was nine years old – in fact never really knowing exactly when her birthday is – Tara Westover grew up working in her father’s scrapyard and helping her midwife mother gather and combine herbs for homeopathic treatments. She and her siblings were raised in fear and disdain of things “ungodly” or “whorish.” Members of the family suffer several traumatic injuries over the years, almost always forced to heal “naturally” at home, but the most traumatic of all may be the damage that they suffered to their own self-esteem, their own subverted will, and their own ability to think for themselves. Tara’s memories and understanding of events were constantly disputed and challenged, including the facts of one brother’s repeatedly dangerous abuse to her and other family members.

“Guilt is the fear of one’s own wretchedness. It has nothing to do with other people.”

Tara, although having suffered years of self-doubt and manipulation by her mentally ill father, her weak mother and abusive brother, and with virtually no education at all, manages to find herself at Brigham Young University, and from there she continues on to a Master’s degree and PHD from Cambridge before she is thirty years old. Although these achievements speak volumes about her inner strength, she still must deal with her own guilt for breaking from her family’s traditions and beliefs, and for saving herself.

“I am not the child my father raised, but he is the father who raised her”

This book was so well-written and absorbing that I couldn’t put it down. The horrors of her growing up years and she agony and self-questioning she still faced even after “escaping,” tore at my heart. She finally learns that her family wouldn’t change, even though she had.

A wonderful book that I believe deserves many more than simply 5 stars.

Many thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Educated is one of the most important contemporary reads of this millennium, destined to be a classic.

Three reasons why you need to read Educated,:

Elegant prose

Engrossing storytelling.

Immensely important and relevant

There is something infinite and all-encompassing about Educated that will fulfill any expectation you could have for this book! Or any book for that matter!

It is so relevant and important. Bigger than life

It touches on every aspect of being human: gender, sexuality, race, religion, socioeconomic status, morality, literacy, self-esteem, mental health, and human relationships in general. And how education, or being educated, changes the way you and others perceive each of those aspects of yourself.

The first thing you will notice is the writing. You will be in awe of how such personal story can be told with incredible composure and objectivity and still be such a gripping, emotional read. However, Tara’s composure doesn’t feel distanced. It feels as reckoning, acceptance, and ultimately as hope and forgiveness.

The second is the storytelling. So engrossing. It will transport you to the mountains of Idaho, all wilderness around you, to a time that even though is in this millennium, feels ancient.

Even if it they are completely opposite to your own, you cannot help but admire the convictions with which some people refuse to conform to society’s rules and their determination to stay at the fringes of this society, isolated from what they consider is against their principles. And you will admire even more Tara’s determination and courage to break away from these convictions to pursue a dream that so many us give for granted: Education.

For us, fortunate to be in supportive environments that encourage education, is hard to digest the concept that millions of people, especially girls and women, are purposely and systematically discouraged and even forcibly kept away from getting educated.

Just like her family, Tara didn’t conform to what her environment expected of her. She bravely challenged these expectations and embarked in a journey to an unknown and scary destination that she knew it was meant for her: Education.